That’s when Nelms took a less-than-subtle jab at the biggest U.S. network, and when the Goliath moniker came into play.

“[Pulse’s growth] would have been even higher without some of the competitive challenges, I’ll say, and one of those competitors is the Goliath in the industry,” Nelms said.

What challenges is Nelms referring to, and how is Visa stifling Pulse’s growth?

Look no further than Visa’s Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF): a program that “rewards merchant acquirers with lower variable processing costs if they send more transactions Visa’s way,” according to Digital Transaction. Visa created the program as a response to the Durbin Amendment, which diverted over half the volume from Visa’s PIN-debit network, Interlink, to competitors such as Pulse.

While some may describe FANF as an innovative way to circumvent regulations, Nelms had a different term for it: transaction hijacking.

““As they continue to roll out some of these new, kind of hijack-transaction actions—a lot of those are just being rolled out now and will have an increasing effect on all the other competitors in the market, including Pulse,” Nelms said.